Beijing: Ahead of Premier Wen Jiabao`s visit
to New Delhi next month, India and China will hold the 14th
round of boundary talks here on November 29-30, the Chinese
Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.
The Indian side would be led by National Security Adviser
Shivshankar Menon while State Councilor Dai Bingguo would head
the Chinese delegation at the talks, Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing.
The last boundary talks were held in 2009 in New Delhi,
where the two sides had agreed to push forward the framework
of the dialogue process.
The November 29-30 border negotiations come ahead of
Wen`s planned visit to India in mid-December.
China and India started discussing border issues in the
1980s. To maintain peace and stability along the border area,
two agreements were inked in 1993 and 1996 respectively.
In 2003, the heads of the two countries designated
Special Representatives for demarcation work.
In 2005, China and India signed a political guideline on
demarcation during Wen`s visit to India.
The border issue was also discussed during Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh`s meeting with Wen last month on the sidelines
of the ASEAN summit in Hanoi.
On the boundary problem, both Singh and Wen said they
looked forward to early resolution of the issue and asked
their Special Representatives to deal with the subject with a
sense of urgency.
"Both mentioned the need to carry the process forward
from Guiding Principles and Political Parameters signed in
2005. Both said they will ask Special Representatives to do so
with a sense of urgency," Menon had said last month after the
Singh-Wen meeting.
In the meantime, the two sides had agreed that pending
the settlement, they would maintain peace and tranquility on
the border.
"They have given new impetus to the process, between
Special Representatives and officials, to work through the
issues and have given clear direction on how they want this to
be handled," Menon had said.
India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq kms of
Jammu and Kashmir, including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to it
by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in
1963. On the other hand, China accuses India of possessing
some 90,000 sq km of its territory, mostly in Arunachal
Pradesh.
PTI
